Chris sank down onto a chair with his head in his hands. “You have nothing more to worry about from me,” he whispered hoarsely. Amber expected him to go to bed to sleep off the effects of the wine, but instead he stayed up, and she was shocked when she heard him leave the house. Looking out the window she saw him go to his car and return with another bottle of wine. He continued drinking until the early hours of the morning, mumbling to himself and occasionally laughing loudly. She was unable to get a wink of sleep until it was silent downstairs and she was certain he had drifted off. It seemed she had just closed her eyes when the sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs jolted her awake, and then Chris began pounding on the door.
“Amber I need to talk to you right now.” Before she could move he had flung open the door. “There you are, my darling. Where have you been? I’ve been all alone down there. It’s so cold.” To her absolute horror he climbed into her bed.
“Chris, get out. This is unbelievable. I told you I would call the police and I meant it.”
His expression became ugly. “What do you mean you’ll call the police? Why are you doing this to me, Amber, when we’re in love?” The next thing she knew she was pinned beneath him as he rested his full weight on her. His sour breath made her gag as his hand groped at her breast. Through her state of shock she realized she would have to outsmart him if she was going to get away or he could actually rape her.
She let her body go limp to make him think she had given up on resisting him. It worked because she soon felt him relax. That’s when she brought her knee up between his thighs as hard as she could. He bellowed in pain, and she took the opportunity to push him off her and bolt for the door. With only the thought of escape in her mind she didn’t stop to grab her keys or cell phone as she headed down the stairs and out the front door into the woods. She could still hear him yelling out her name as she ran up the path towards Jesse’s cabin.
Chapter 9
Amber barely noticed the sharp stones digging into her feet as she made her way along the path in the darkness. She couldn’t believe what had just happened to her, and she knew it was going to rip Kat apart when she found out. She had no choice but to tell her. There was no way she could ever be in the same room as Chris again, and her friend deserved to know what her husband was capable of. Although she was convinced he never would have behaved like that if he was sober, alcohol was not an excuse, especially when he had continued drinking after the first incident.
There were no lights on in Jesse’s cabin as she’d expected at this late hour. As she knocked on the door, Amber remembered what he had said about his dog not liking strangers. She looked around nervously but she could not see any sign of Shadow. It took Jesse ages to open the door, and he was wary as he rubbed his eyes and peered out into the darkness. He gasped when he saw that his late night visitor was Amber dressed only in her pyjamas with bare feet.
“Amber, what are you doing here? Are you okay? Come in.” She filled him in on everything that had happened, and when she finished his fists were clenched in anger.
“That guy needs to be taught a lesson. I have a good mind to go down there right now and have a word or two with him.”
She put her hand on his arm. “Just leave him be. He’s too drunk at the moment to see any kind of reason, and I don’t want you to get involved in this mess.”
“Are you going to report him to the police?”
“At first I wasn’t going to because I thought telling Kat would be punishment enough, but when he got into my bed and pinned me down he crossed the line. I really thought he was going to rape me. I don’t care what someone is going through in their personal life, there’s just no excuse for that. He’s dangerous and what’s to say he won’t do the same thing to another woman if I let him get away with it this time? I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.”
“I have no cell reception right, but I can drive you into town now if that’s what you want.”
“No, I’d rather wait till morning.”
As the gravity of the situation sank in Amber buried her head in her hands and cried. She was about to throw a grenade into the life of her best friend in the whole world, and nothing could ever be the same between them again. “Poor Kat, this will destroy her.”
Jesse rubbed her shoulder consolingly. “He’s responsible for this, not you. He made the choice to assault you, and now he has to live with the consequences. Don’t wear any of the guilt for his actions.”
“Thanks.” She smiled weakly and took the tissue he held out to her,
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“You could make me a cup of tea.”
“Now that’s something I can do. Then I’ll make up a bed so you can try and get some rest. I can come to the police station in the morning with you too, if you like.”
“We’ll see”.
After fixing the tea and making a bed on the couch, Jesse stayed up talking with her for a while. After he turned in she wasn’t able to sleep at all, and she was still awake when the sun came up. All she could think about was what she was going to say to Kat. She knew she had to try and get hold of her somehow before she set off on her way to the cabin, and this thought consumed her as she tossed and turned on the lumpy couch.
At around five-thirty Amber gave up trying to sleep and went into the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. There were no towels to be found, so she went back into the hall and opened the linen closet. After she’d pulled out a clean towel she noticed some women’s clothes pushed way over towards the back of the closet. There was a sparkly pink top, a pair of jeans and some high heeled sandals. They must belong to Jesse’s girlfriend she thought, and she felt a pang of jealousy that surprised her. The more she got to know him, the more attractive she found him, but at the moment she had far more pressing things to worry about.
Jesse got up shortly after Amber and they had a coffee together before he walked with her back to the cabin. She was very relieved to see that Chris’s car was gone when they emerged from the woods. For once her cell phone had reception, but despite several attempts she was unable to get hold of Kat.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come into town with you? I really don’t mind,” said Jesse as she climbed the steps to the porch.
“No thanks. I’ll be fine now he’s gone. My biggest concern at the moment is getting hold of Kat. I wish she would answer her phone.”
“Do you want me to stick around here with you for a while?”
“No, I’d like some time to myself actually before I talk to the police.”
“Okay. You know where I am if you need anything.”
“Thanks so much, Jesse. I don’t know what I would have done without you last night.”
“Always happy to help a damsel in distress.” She smiled weakly and waved as he disappeared down the path. Chris had cleaned up his mess from the night before, and he’d taken all the evidence with him, including the broken lamp. For the next hour Amber busied herself packing her bags while still trying to get hold of Kat. When it became clear that she was not going to answer her phone or return any of the voice mail messages, Amber could only assume her friend had forgotten her phone, or that she was already on the way there with the music playing loudly in the car.
She wouldn’t have put it past Kat to leave at the crack of dawn because she was so excited about the trip. In a way it was for the best if she got to break the news to her in person. At least out here she would have a bit of time to think things through before deciding what to do.
Realizing Kat might turn up earlier than expected, Amber steeled herself for the trip to the police station. It had to be done but she was dreading it, and she almost wished she’d let Jesse accompany her there. Her mind was barely on the road as she drove into town and pulled up next to a missing poster of Tehya Gordon in front of the station. She gave it a quick glance, but something made her take a second look.
The photo was taken at the party the night Tehya disappear
ed, and she was dressed in a pink top, a pair of skinny jeans and sandals. Her outfit looked very similar to the clothes she had seen in Jesse’s closet just that morning. Amber raised her hand to her throbbing temple and took some deep breaths. This was too much for her to deal with today. Jesse had been so kind, and he had seemed really angry about what had happened to her. He couldn’t possibly be involved in Tehya’s disappearance. It didn’t make any sense at all. She was probably mistaken, but despite her misgivings she decided she had to tell the police what she had seen at his house.
After waiting for almost half an hour Amber was finally shown through to an office out the back. She filed her complaint about Chris first to get it over with, and she was glad the woman assigned to take her statement did not make her feel as if she was blowing the incident out of proportion.
“I really don’t know if I’m doing the right thing here,” she confided to her after she had finished giving her statement. “Chris has been my friend for years, and I don’t want him to go to jail or to ruin his life, I just want him to take responsibility and never do it again.” The policewoman looked up from the keyboard she had been tapping away at.
“So many women feel the same way you do, and as a result a lot of assaults go unreported. It’s very difficult to report someone you know and trust, but sadly most sexual assaults are committed by people known to the victims. Protecting them does no one any favors, it just allows them to get away with it and do it again.” She paused for a moment to read something on the screen. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but it seems this is not the first time he has done this. He has a history of violence against women.”
“You’re not serious.”
“Yes, I am. Six years ago he was charged for assaulting a female friend. The charges were dropped, though, when she didn’t show up in court to give evidence.” All of Amber’s doubts about whether she had done the right thing evaporated in an instant. Chris was a serial offender, and this time she would make sure he faced up to what he had done.
“Thank you for telling me. It’s so hard to believe, and if I hadn’t experienced his Jekyll and Hyde personality firsthand I don’t know what I’d think. I hope my friend believes me.”
“Your friend will know you wouldn’t make something like this up. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”
Amber took a deep breath. “As a matter of fact there is. I know this is going to seem really weird after I just told you how great Jesse Davidson was last night when I needed help. It’s probably nothing, but when I got up to go to the bathroom this morning I was looking in a cupboard for a towel and I saw some women’s clothes.” The officer looked at her uncomprehendingly. “When I pulled up outside the station I saw the photo of Tehya Gordon on the missing poster and I noticed what she was wearing. The clothes she had on when she disappeared looked the same as the ones I saw in the cupboard at Jesse’s house.”
“Are you sure about this? You were pretty shaken up and probably not thinking too clearly.”
“I’m not really one hundred per cent sure because it was dark in the cupboard, but the top and sandals looked very similar to the ones in the photo and there was a pair of jeans with them.”
“Thank you. Jesse has never been a suspect, despite some of the rumours you might have heard. We did do a thorough search of the area surrounding his cabin after she disappeared to appease some of the locals. He co-operated with us and has given us no reason to suspect him of any involvement. I’ll let my supervisor know what you saw, and it may be enough to get a search warrant. We’ll keep you posted on both situations.”
“Okay, I just thought I should let you know.” Amber stepped out of the police station into the bright sunshine. The first person she saw across the street was Sharon. She almost waved out of habit, but Sharon turned away quickly and kept walking. Even though the rational part of her brain believed it was ludicrous to suspect Jesse of such a vicious crime, the seeds of doubt had been sown. It really was quite a coincidence. What if Sharon and Bob were right about him after all?
The absolute last thing she wanted to do was return to the cabin, but she had no choice. She’d tried to ring Kat on her cell phone again several times with no luck. All she could do now was go back and wait for her. She hoped Jesse would not come over to check on her. There was no way she could act normally around him after she had just reported him to the police.
Remembering he had given her his cell phone number she decided to text him and let him know she wanted to be alone when Kat turned up. If he really was a psychopath he was hardly going to be deterred by a text message, but she couldn’t afford to dwell on that right now. Some clouds crossed the sun as the headed back down the dirt road leading to the lake, and Amber couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen.
Chapter 10
There was no sign of Kat at the cabin when she pulled up. Amber felt relieved because it bought her a bit of time to work out exactly what she was going to say to her friend. She tried to relax by making herself some lunch, but she couldn’t eat a bite. Instead she paced up and down the porch, listening for the sound of an approaching car, while also keeping an eye out for Jesse. She kept rehearsing in her mind how she was going to break the terrible news to Kat, but there was no point trying to soften the blow. It would be devastating no matter how she put it, and she decided she just had to tell her what had happened as quickly as possible.
When an hour had passed and there was still no sign of Kat, Amber decided to make some chamomile tea to calm her nerves. As she walked past the coffee table she saw the copy of Jesse’s book she had dropped there the night before when she came in with Chris. She picked it up and took it outside to the porch where she sat down and leafed through it in an attempt to distract herself. It was a collection of short stories and she glanced at them without much interest. There was one story called Hunger of the Wolf that caught her attention. She found the page number and began to read while keeping an ear open for Kat’s approach.
The story was about a young girl who disappeared from a deserted mountain road late at night. She was just one of a number of young girls who had vanished in the area in mysterious circumstances over the years. No one knew what had happened to them, but there were rumours that a werewolf lived in the mountains and prowled through the town when the moon was full, hunting for female victims. Most people in the town knew to avoid isolated roads on those nights and to never venture out alone, but some of the teenagers dismissed it as superstition. They became complacent when no attacks had taken place for several years and refused to listen to their parents. It was always when the young people stopped taking precautions that another girl disappeared.
The more she read, the more alarmed Amber became. It seemed like he was writing directly about the disappearance of Tehya Gordon. She turned to the front page to find out when the book was published and saw that is was over three years earlier. This had to be the story the Crow’s had told her about. She had no idea what it could mean, but she was compelled to keep reading to find out what happened.
The young girl in the story had lied to her mother so she could go to a party she was forbidden from attending. She had told her mother she was spending the night at her grandmother’s house because she knew her grandmother went to bed early. As soon as the old lady was asleep, she changed into a red dress and climbed out the window. The last anyone saw of her she was walking alone back to her grandmother’s house on the edge of town.
The girl had not felt worried at all as she made her way home that night. Her thoughts were taken up with a boy she had met at the party. When a car pulled up next to her and a familiar face asked her if she would like a lift, she did not hesitate to get in. The man was a local who had lived in the area for many years and he was well known, but he had a terrible secret. He was a serial killer who believed he was a wolf reincarnated. When he got his victims back to his cabin in the woods he donned a wolf pelt before devouring them in a gruesome way. It
was suitably descriptive for a horror story, and even though she was repelled, Amber could not stop reading. The killer liked to cover himself in the victim’s blood while he was devouring them, and when he was finished with them he kept their clothes as mementos of his crimes.
By the time she finished reading Amber’s hand was shaking and her breathing was ragged. She looked up quickly and scanned the trees before going inside and locking the door securely. She was overcome with the distinct feeling that someone was watching her. She regretted dismissing Sharon’s and Bob’s warnings about Jesse Davidson so easily when they clearly knew a lot more about him than she did. No wonder they had become so angry with her.
It could not be just a coincidence that he had written a story so close to reality and she had seen clothes identical to those worn by the missing girl in his closet. She wondered why the police weren’t more interested in him. Amber was just pulling the blinds shut when she saw the dust rising on the driveway, heralding the approach of a car. A few seconds later Kat’s battered old station wagon came into view. She was so relieved to see her friend’s face that for a moment she almost forgot the terrible task that lay ahead of her. With a heavy heart she unlocked the door and walked down the path to meet her.
Kat waved and smiled as she drove past Amber to park her car. She looked so happy and carefree that Amber’s heart sank even lower. When she got out of the car Kat ran up the path to the house and threw her arms around her friend.
“Boy, am I glad to be here. I really need this break.” She took a deep breath of fresh air. “I left fairly early but the traffic out of the city was murder. A truck overturned on the freeway, and I was stuck behind it for over two hours. To make things even worse I lost my cell phone when I went out last night. I had nothing to do but stare out the window. What’s for dinner? I know it’s early, but I’m starving. I only had a packet of chips at a gas station on the way here. Did Chris make it here last night? He probably tried to call me but couldn’t reach me. I brought a new phone but haven’t worked out how to use it yet. I’d better give him a call soon or he’ll start to worry. You can help me work it out since you’re much more tech-savvy than me. What’s wrong?” In the midst of her excited chattering Kat finally noticed the expression on Amber’s face. “Oh my God, it’s Chris isn’t it? He’s had an accident.”
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